Ryzen 3 1200, worth the bargain price?

[mfogg2806]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to complete a build towards Christmas, I have found I can get a Ryzen 3 1200 for £66 ($86) brand new and it seems like a good option to save some pennies. I don't think anything else will come close to that for price/performance?

I'm thinking I can pick this up with a newer b450 board, then wait to upgrade when the 3rd Gen Ryzen comes along. I will look to pair it with a GTX 1060 and 16gb RAM, so the system will be ready when it comes to upgrade the CPU. I imagine I should have more than adequete performance when it comes to 1080p gaming.

Do you reckon this would be a worthwhile investment?

Thanks,

Mark.

 

[camieabz]

For Bang per buck, I'd recommend the 1500x 1600, 1600x, or even 2600, depending on budget, as they are all competitive. See image:




Edit: In fairness, that Bang per buck for the 1200 is at £73, so revised for £66 it will be BpB of 102.4, but still a little on the weak side.

Wanna share your vendor?

 

[mfogg2806]

To get the most from the 1060 card, you'll want a little more oomph.

I recommend the 1500x for that card, but 1600, 1600x, (or even 2600), depending on budget are all competitive. See image:

The price for the 1200 is really appealing but judging by the chart it is going to hamper performance.

I had a look at the 1500x, that is currently £112 on Amazon. Would it be worth spending the extra £46 for the extra 4 threads?

 

[camieabz]

In pure bang per buck, the 1200 wins, and always will because of the low price, but as you say, the 1200 comes up a little short in power.

Versus the 1500x - http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-1500X-vs-AMD-Ryzen-3-1200/3921vs3931

In many games on a 1060, a faster CPU won't make a huge difference, but in CPU dependent games it can, and overall system performance will be better for it. Perhaps consider a very fast boot drive too, such as:

Adata SX8200 240GB (£68)

or

Samsung 970 Evo 250GB (£78 - Faster reads; slower writes; more expensive in general)

or

Adata SX8200 480GB (very decent speed and capacity for the price of £102)

http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Adata-XPG-SX8200-NVMe-PCIe-M2-480GB-vs-Adata-XPG-SX8200-NVMe-PCIe-M2-240GB/m482768vsm480586

 

[Greeko85]

Just keep in mind that the 1200 is a budget cpu and will perform as such-when it comes to more demanding titles that are more cpu bound it will struggle. I understand that your budget may be limited but I would highly recommend going for the 1500x, if thats the highest you're willing to go.

 

[punkncat]

The 1200 is a fully capable little chip, and that price is good. I think your game plan is sound...you will have the chip on hand to flash your BIOS.

In single threaded performance and with a mild OC the 1200 single threads just as strong as most of the Ryzen line. They game super well, as proven by benchmarks, up to the GTX1060/RX580 level, where above that we mostly see a 'freezing' of frame rates.

 

[Peter Martin]

still, the X models have more punch

 

[punkncat]

still, the X models have more punch

Personally, and yes I am a R7 owner, I think the value mark for this line STILL lies with the 1700. They have been on and off sale in the ~$170 range as of late. They will almost assuredly OC to around 3.8 on the stock cooler and run games and applications like a champ. Even the margin of performance increase with a new R7 'x' series chip is small, with cost being just below double, it doesn't pan out on a value level.

The 1200 is, with a mild OC, every bit as capable as a up to the neighborhood of the 4-6th gen core (5) series. It's sub $100. It's one hell of a value.

 

[mfogg2806]

The 1200 is a fully capable little chip, and that price is good. I think your game plan is sound...you will have the chip on hand to flash your BIOS.

In single threaded performance and with a mild OC the 1200 single threads just as strong as most of the Ryzen line. They game super well, as proven by benchmarks, up to the GTX1060/RX580 level, where above that we mostly see a 'freezing' of frame rates.

This is what I am thinking, it should be fine for now and the upgrade path of the AM4 platform should allow me to drop in a new 6 core when they are available. With a decent overclock it should be ok for a few months.

Are the 3rd Gen Ryzens meant to be released around April next year?

 

[mfogg2806]

For Bang per buck, I'd recommend the 1500x 1600, 1600x, or even 2600, depending on budget, as they are all competitive. See image:




Edit: In fairness, that Bang per buck for the 1200 is at £73, so revised for £66 it will be BpB of 102.4, but still a little on the weak side.

Wanna share your vendor?

The vendor is actually using Amazon Prime Now. They are currently at £73.97 but with Halifax they have a 10% cashback offer on for a single Prime Now order, so should work out at £66.58.

They only have the 1200/1600/1700 available to order though.

Edit: You do have to be a Prime member (which I am anyway) but technically it would be slightly more expensive if you needed to take the £7.99 into account :lol:

 

[Peter Martin]

still, the X models have more punch

Personally, and yes I am a R7 owner, I think the value mark for this line STILL lies with the 1700. They have been on and off sale in the ~$170 range as of late. They will almost assuredly OC to around 3.8 on the stock cooler and run games and applications like a champ. Even the margin of performance increase with a new R7 'x' series chip is small, with cost being just below double, it doesn't pan out on a value level.

The 1200 is, with a mild OC, every bit as capable as a up to the neighborhood of the 4-6th gen core (5) series. It's sub $100. It's one hell of a value.

it does if you want to pair it with a high end video card, 16 lanes of pcie

 

[mfogg2806]

still, the X models have more punch

Personally, and yes I am a R7 owner, I think the value mark for this line STILL lies with the 1700. They have been on and off sale in the ~$170 range as of late. They will almost assuredly OC to around 3.8 on the stock cooler and run games and applications like a champ. Even the margin of performance increase with a new R7 'x' series chip is small, with cost being just below double, it doesn't pan out on a value level.

The 1200 is, with a mild OC, every bit as capable as a up to the neighborhood of the 4-6th gen core (5) series. It's sub $100. It's one hell of a value.

it does if you want to pair it with a high end video card, 16 lanes of pcie

What is the 1200 limited to and how much effect will that have on performance?

 

[Greeko85]

The 1200 does come with 16 pci-e lanes. More than enough bandwidth for any gpu.

 

[Peter Martin]

ah, you are right. so many models, got confused. specs here
https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-3-1200

 

[mfogg2806]

Thanks for confirming that, I think we can say it is a worthwile investment for the price point.

One other question would be which b450 motherboard would be best suited, sorry I know this is the CPU section. It would need to be a solid overclocker for a 6 core.

Any suggestions, can probably stretch to £90 and was looking for a mATX but could do ATX?